Your toughest leadership challenge is likely yourself. You have to
lead yourself before you can lead anybody else. Unless you are squared away internally,
you have nothing to offer your team. How effectively can you lead others if your
spirits are sagging, your courage is wavering, and your vision is weak?
How can you maximize your leadership potential, despite opposition
and discouragement? By cultivating high emotional self-control and superior self-leadership.
You need to set aside for reflection, prayer, fasting, and solitude. Go to a quiet
place and recalibrate. Remind yourself who you are. Invest regularly in keeping
your calling clear, avoiding mission drift, and keeping distraction and temptation
at bay.
Self-leadership is so tough that most leaders avoid it. Some years
ago a top Christian leader disqualified himself from ministry. One article described
his demise: “He sank like a rock, beat up, burned out, angry and depressed,
no good to himself and no good to the people he loved.” When this pastor
wrote about his experience, he said, “Eventually I couldn’t even sleep
at night. Another wave of broken lives would come to shore at the church, and
I found I didn’t have enough compassion for them any more. Inside I became
angry. Many people think I had a crisis of faith. I simply collapsed on the inside.”
He failed the self-leadership test. He should have regrouped, reflected,
recalibrated, or taken a sabbatical.
I’ll never forget when three wise people came to me and said,
“Bill, there were two areas when you were not at your leadership best, and
we paid dearly for it. Bill, the best gift you can give us is a healthy, energized,
fully surrendered, focused self. And no one can do that for you.” They were
right.
So, knowing what’s at stake, I ask myself 10 self-leadership
questions:
1. Is my calling sure? You have a life calling. Ask, “What’s my mission, God? Where do you want me to serve? What would you have me do?”
When you receive a calling, your life takes on focus. Energy gets released. You’re
on a mission. Now, keep your calling sure. When you receive reaffirmation of your
calling, say, “Let’s forget all the other distractions and temptations.
Let’s go!” To keep your calling sure, post it, frame it, keep it foremost
in your mind.
2. Is my vision clear? How can you lead people into the future if
your picture of the future is fuzzy? You need a clear vision so you can say, “Here’s
the picture; this is what we’re doing; here’s why we’re doing
it; if things go right, here’s what the picture will look like a year from
now.” Clarify your vision and keep it clear. Nobody can do that work for
you. It’s your job.
3. Is my passion hot? Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric,
said, “Great leaders energize and impassion people around them.” I
agree. When I appoint leaders, I look for 100-watt bulbs because I want them to
light up everything and everyone around them. Whose responsibility is it to keep
your passion fired up? It’s your job. That’s self-leadership—so
keep your passion hot. Do whatever you have to do.
4. Is my character of integrity? Leadership requires moral authority. Followers need to see integrity in your life to trust you. You don’t have
to be the smartest or most charismatic, but you do need character. Every time
you compromise character, you compromise leadership. When you give your word to
be at a certain place at a certain time and you don’t show up, that’s
a character issue. That erodes trust, hurts the team, and impacts mission achievement.
5. Is my pride subdued? You have a choice. Do you want opposition
or favor in your leadership? If you’re humble, the favor of God carries
you. God opposes the proud. To find out if pride is affecting your leadership,
ask your spouse, children, teammates, or friends, “Do you ever sense a prideful
spirit in me?” It’s your job to subdue pride.
6. Are my fears at bay? I ask leaders, “Why haven’t you
introduced more change? Why haven’t you pulled the pin? Why haven’t
you taken a stand on a particular issue?” Often the response is: “Because
I am afraid.” Fear immobilizes and neutralizes leaders, distorts their decisions
and sabotages their leadership. Find the courage to step out in faith.
7. Are interior issues undermining my leadership? All of us have
wounds, losses, and disappointments in our past. All that stuff shapes us. Leaders
who ignore their interior reality often make poor decisions. Some leaders make
grandiose decisions that enslave their followers to an agenda that comes out of
their need to be bigger than, better than, grander than. Other leaders are incurable
people pleasers. You are responsible for resolving your interior issues.
8. Are my ears open to the Spirit’s whisper? Most of the breakthrough ideas in my leadership have come from promptings of the Holy Spirit. Some of the
great sermons, visions, value clarifications, strategy changes, and people selections
have not been due to my cleverness. It has been the Holy Spirit whispering to
my spirit. You can’t afford to be deaf to heaven. Ultimately, you walk by
faith, not by sight.
9. Is my pace sustainable? I once came close to a total emotional
meltdown. I abused my spiritual gifts, damaged my body, neglected my family and
friends. I asked myself, Bill, who’s forcing you to bite off more than
you can chew? Whose approval, affirmation, and applause are you seeking that makes
you live this way? The answers were devastating. I had no one else to blame.
The only person who can put a sustainability program together for your future
is you. Develop an approach to leadership that enables you to endure over time.
10. Are my gifts developing? What are your top three spiritual gifts? You must know which gifts you’ve been given, how they rank in order, and
how you can best develop each of those gifts. What gifts have you been given?
Are you growing them? Is your capacity for loving people deepening? God
has only one treasure: people. Become great at taking care of God’s treasures.
Love them. Nurture them. Develop them. Challenge them. Mature them. PE
